1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to motor vehicle sensor system assemblies. More specifically, the invention relates to motor vehicle sensor system assemblies having sensors to determine the occurrence of a change in vehicle attitude or motion.
2. Description of Related Art
In motor vehicle design, vehicle safety systems are becoming increasingly important. To that end, vehicles often include sensor systems used to alert the driver, and in some cases, to automatically deploy certain safety and dynamic stability systems. Sensor systems may be configured to trigger vehicle safety systems or vehicle reaction systems, such as deployment of airbags, automatic braking, or reduction of engine torque upon the occurrence of predetermined conditions. For example, electronic stability control (ESC) systems automatically control vehicle functions to control loss of directional stability or intervene where vehicle rollover conditions are present. In such systems, vehicles contain sensor elements that sense surrounding events and kinematic conditions, such as acceleration.
Sensing assemblies, which may contain a number of sensing devices such as accelerometers or angular rate sensors, continuously sense data and provide it to a main circuit board that further provides the data to a control unit. The sensing assemblies are typically in electrical and mechanical communication with the main circuit board, and the main circuit board is in electrical communication with the control unit. If the sensing assemblies sense a change that exceeds a predetermined threshold, the control unit will deploy relevant safety and/or vehicle reaction systems. Since inadvertent deployment of safety systems or vehicle reaction systems is highly undesirable, the control unit needs to reliably detect these events.
Thus, such sensor packages must reliably operate while being subjected to vibrations and other interferences. One source of vibration and noise is the main circuit board itself, since the sensing assemblies are typically mechanically coupled to the main circuit board, which has electrical cabling attached.
In view of the above, it is apparent that there exists a need for a sensor assembly package capable of more reliably transmitting data, in order to avoid erroneous deployment of safety systems or reaction systems.